March 2022 - Don't Stop Us Now

It’s Not About Me – Joanna Flint

March 30, 2022March 30, 2022
by Claire

We’re back from Covid (hooray!) and so even more excited about this week’s inspiring guest!

Joanna Flint is Chief Commercial Officer for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group where she’s responsible for its global marketing, sales, revenue management, brand and distribution functions. She is also a member of the company’s Board.

Joanna joined the luxury brand last year after more than twelve years with Google in Asia where, amongst other roles, she was Managing Director of Google Singapore. Based in Singapore with her family, after 20 years living in Asia, Joanna is also a member of YPO and a mentor to early stage start-ups.

If you’re contemplating your career or thinking about changing roles then you have come to the right place because Joanna has some of the most thoughtful musings on this topic we’ve heard.

In this episode you’ll learn:

The incredible story of why Joanna nearly didn’t apply for the top job at Google in Singapore and what happened to make her change her mind
The opportunities she feels she wasted because she wasn’t super clear about what she wanted next in her career
Exactly how Joanna got that clarity on what her next role needed to look like
And how she manages the challenges of leading a truly global team without working 24/7.

We know you’ll love the amazing insights and advice shared in this conversation, so enjoy this episode with the insightful and passionate Joanna Flint.

A quick P.S. from us that we are giving our mini episodes a little break for a while, so we’ll be back in two weeks time with our next conversation with an amazing, pioneering female leader. Hint – she’s ‘uber’ cool.

Links

Joanna on LinkedIn

Mandarinoriental.com

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Succeeding with Co-Founders – Future Proof Me

March 15, 2022March 16, 2022
by Claire

This week’s mini episode explores what it takes to build a successful partnership with a co-founder.

One thing we’ve noticed with numerous early stage startups is the challenge in those very early days of finding a co-founder, or co-founders, whom you can really work with for the long term, even when the pressure’s on.

So often you hear of acrimonious founder breakups and it got us asking ourselves, how do you create a good working relationship over time if you have co-founders?

One person who’s brilliantly navigated the co-founder challenge is serial Scottish entrepreneur Lesley Eccles, who with her 4 other co-founders built a blockbuster business called FanDuel. We spoke to Lesley on the podcast a year ago and she has some amazing stories and experiences if you haven’t heard that episode.

In this mini episode you’ll hear how Lesley and her co-founders made a success of working and pivoting together for more than ten years to create a business that has ultimately been valued over $11 billion.

We also share some of our observations from the four years of producing this podcast and from years of observing and advising numerous startups first hand.

As the saying goes: “it takes two to tango” and it typically takes two or more to build an epic business. So enjoy this mini episode on Succeeding with Co Founders.

Links

Link to Lesley Eccles original episode

Link to Adina Jacobs orig episode

Interview

Smart Operator – Vered Raviv Schwarz

March 8, 2022March 8, 2022
by Claire

We have a smart operator and a great champion for women on the show this week.

Her name is Vered Raviv Schwarz and she’s spent the past 20 years in disruptive tech companies, based in Israel.

These days Vered is President and Chief Operating Officer for Guesty, a property management platform offering software that’s used by people renting out short term and vacation rental properties around the world. With Guesty’s multiple features they can easily list and manage their rentals on multiple sites such as AirBnb and Vebo.

Before Guesty, Vered spent nearly 6 years at the freelancer marketplace Fiverr as Chief Operating Officer. And prior to that she was a lawyer and General Counsel at other tech companies.

We’ve been struck by what a smart operator and thinker Vered is.

In this episode you’ll hear a lot of great advice including:

How some of the best advice Vered was given, and now gives herself, changed the course of her entire career
Why she’s passionate about making tech companies more diverse and what she’s doing about that
How she helps companies successfully scale and grow globally
And why Vered’s a great believer in being able to make decisions quickly.

Without further ado enjoy this episode with the switched on and dedicated Vered Raviv Schwarz.

Links

Guesty Website

Vered on LinkedIn

Vered on Twitter – @VRavivSchwarz

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Keep Moving – Future Proof Me

March 1, 2022March 8, 2022
by Claire

This week’s mini episode is all about the value of having a mindset of ‘keeping on going’ even when you stumble. Now that isn’t always easy is it?

One woman who’s really mastered the knack of telling herself constructive stories when things don’t go to plan, is US-based international Uber executive, Julia Paige. Julia is Uber’s global head of Social Impact and she also happens to be a mum of triplets.

When Julia was on the show 18 months ago we were really struck by how good she is at constructive self-talk and her ability to dust herself off and keep moving.

At the heart of Julia’s outlook on tackling tough times is the powerful idea that we all control our own stories. We get to write our narrative and we get to say how our stories end – and, for Julia, she makes sure that the story never ends with failure.

Enjoy this mini episode.